Random Hockey Video of the Day: In Which the Rangers Rehearse Their 1994 Stanley Cup Banner Raising

The NHL lockout has been in effect for more than three months now, and so, with no actual games to report on, we're going to link to a different hockey video every day until a new CBA is reached. Today: You don't lower the Stanley Cup from the scoreboard of an arena without practicing it at least once.

On January 20, 1995 — following a lockout that ended in time for the NHL to salvage a 48-game season — the Rangers finally raised their 1994 Stanley Cup banner, some seven months after they defeated the Canucks in Game 7 of the Finals. And before they raised the banner in front of an ecstatic Madison Square Garden crowd, they practiced raising it. A run-through like that makes sense: You'd want to work out any kinks before doing it for real, particularly if you're planning to lower the Stanley Cup from the scoreboard during the ceremony.

Anyway, last month, a YouTube user uploaded video of that banner-raising rehearsal, which is sort of neat if you're the type who looks back on that championship Rangers team fondly. (Needless to say, we're in that group.) If you'd prefer to see the actual banner raising, there's footage of that, too, in the second half of the clip.

And so, on Day 111 of the NHL lockout, here's Beethoven's Ninth, twice: once in a mostly empty arena, then again in a packed one.